Chevron, Petrobras, and Barclays Are Among 5 Stocks Making Noise Friday

After rallying above $41 per barrel, crude futures are once again below the water-line as traders brace for today’s rig count report. Bulls hope that the decline in crude prices will prevent more companies from activating their drills while bears hope the rig count will continue to rise, raising fears of another oversupply glut.

In this energy-heavy edition of the day’s trending stocks we’ll take a closer look at why Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV), Statoil ASA(ADR) (NYSE:STO), and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) are turning heads today. We’ll also use SEC filings to determine what the smart money thinks of each company’s shares.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Chevron Reports Mixed Results

Like its fellow supermajor Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) shares are in the red today after the company reported a loss of $0.78 per share on revenue of $29.3 billion, missing the bottom-line consensus estimate by a hefty $1.10 per share but beating the top-line target by $1.22 billion. Lower crude prices and impairments caused the company’s upstream division to report a loss of $2.46 billion while weak refining margins caused the company’s downstream unit to deliver earnings of just $1.28 billion. In positive news, the company continues to make progress with its growth and cost containment initiatives. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management owned more than 3.6 million shares of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) at the end of the second quarter.

Barclays Pops

After having been beaten up due to Britain voting to leave the EU last month, Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) shares have surged by 7% due to a better than expected earnings release. For the first half, the company reported earnings of GBX0.069 ($0.09) per share on revenue of GBP11.01 billion ($14.61 billion). Despite profits falling by 21% year-over-year, the company generated a solid return on tangible equity of 11% and is committed to divesting non-core assets to improve its focus. Of the 766 active funds in our database, 12 of them owned $289.27 million worth of Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) shares in aggregate on March 31, which accounted for 0.80% of the float.

On the next page we’ll find out why Revlon Inc, Statoil, and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras have investors buzzing today.

Revlon Inches Up 0.9% on Earnings

Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV) reported earnings of $0.28 per share for its second quarter, on revenue of $488.9 million. Revlon’s adjusted net income of $14.7 million tumbled by $14.3 million year-over-year, almost entirely due to foreign exchange fluctuations that negatively impacted intercompany loans. Meanwhile, the company’s net sales rose by 1.3% on an as-reported basis and by 3.5% on a constant-currency basis. Nine funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV) at the end of the first quarter, up by one quarter-over-quarter.

M&A in the Oil Patch

Statoil ASA(ADR) (NYSE:STO) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) are each trending after the former agreed to buy a major offshore oil block from Petrobras for $2.5 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Statoil will receive Petrobras’ operating interest of 66% in BM-S-8 in the Santos basin in exchange for cash that will help the latter company cut its debt by around two percentage points. Analysts estimate that BM-S-8 holds 700 million-to-1.30 billion BOE of recoverable oil. Statoil will pay around $1.25 billion when the deal closes and another $1.25 billion when various milestones are met.

The number of hedge funds in our system with stakes in Statoil ASA(ADR) (NYSE:STO) fell by one quarter-over-quarter to seven as of the end of March. Meanwhile 23 funds reported owning shares of Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) as of the end of the first quarter, a dip of one from the beginning of the quarter.

Disclosure: None